Conversions are the bottom line of business – the end goal.
Granted, there are no shortcuts. You have to produce well-structured quotes and tenders that provide compelling reasons to choose your company, and you have to do it consistently over the long haul.
But no matter how well prepared your quotes and tenders are, they never hit the mark 100% of the time, so there’s always room for improvement. There’s also the issue of prospects taking their time to sign on the dotted line and make your proposal less than a pressing priority.
So, how do you strike the right balance, and increase the conversion of quotes into sales? Here are five tips to boost your trustworthiness and your conversions.
1. USE CRM
A good knowledge of your prospects enables you to develop quotes that target their specific need, but where do you get, store and sort information about your contacts? A customer relationship management system can be a powerful tool in your quote-to-sale armoury.
MYOB EXO CRM Module and other similar solutions can offer you complete visibility and let you record your prospect’s quote likes and dislikes, their location, their spending patterns, age and gender, tastes, needs and buying habits. This will give you a detailed picture of their spending power, giving you the opportunity to modify your quotes and devise them according to their liking.
2. LEVERAGE CUSTOMER MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS TO ADDRESS LEADS EARLY
An article published in The Harvard Business Review pointed out that leads addressed within the first sixty minutes are seven times more likely to develop into meaningful conversions. Prospects may have questions about quotes, product features, the stock available, etc. These need to be addressed quickly if you want to see an uptick in conversions.
Doing all this requires a unique customer management solution, such as the one found in EXO finance. Companies can use it to manage all the customer contact details to manage quotes, invoices, orders, stock, inventory and more, along with sales and marketing activities. Such solutions can help you comprehensively understand your customers and manage your companies and quote contracts; the sales staff will love the real-time stock updates as it will enable efficient addressing of prospect queries.
3. IMPROVE QUOTES BY USING OLD PROJECT JOBS AS A TEMPLATE
You can manage the profitability of your projects and jobs in real time by providing direct visibility of all your process, input and time costs, including labour hours, materials, equipment hours and consulting hours.
This is possible through job and project costing solutions that enable you to identify any variances and make appropriate quotes. And by reviewing previous jobs in areas like job resources, cost types, cost groups, job types, job resources and, most importantly, quote terms, you can save time on complex projects.
4. INTEGRATE SALES MESSAGES
Integrate marketing and sales messages into your proposal. Since quotes are a part of the sales process, you need to reinforce the reasons to choose your company versus one of the competitors.
If you don’t provide them a reason to choose you, you could end up being a textbook example of a poorly handled sales proposition. So ensure that your prospects don’t simply base their decision on the quoted price.
5. INVOLVE THE KEY DECISION MAKERS
Once you identify who key decision makers are, talk to them and involve them in the sales process in order to expedite the quote for the prospect. This also lets you handle any avenues for buying objection with the prospect involved.
Once there is an agreement, send the quote document promptly in a professional manner. Talk it through with the person who is responsible for the ultimate decision. While it’s not always possible to do this, it doesn’t hurt to try getting input of key decision makers.
Copyright @ 2016 - WallStreet. Designed by Webriti